Chapter 1 Traitor

Cover

(Links to comic pages take you to drunkduck.)

This entry is the first one in the ”series” where I bring up background information of each chapter after they are done. I will do this with both of my comics and we’ll beging with TOE’s first chapter ”Traitor”.

The information I bring up are not meant to be spoilerish so you don’t need to worry about me giving up too much information. I might hint on things or point out things that could be useful to know for future chapters. I hope you find this interesting.

Only, do not read the information before you have read the whole chapter!

In future I will also make this kind of entries of characters. After I have began working on the second chapter of TWOD I will begin the ”series” telling about character creation. However, for TOE you will need to wait for that longer, because any background information would turn out being spoilerish at this point of the story.

But let’s begin with Taint of Exile chapter 1 ”Traitor”!

It’s at the same time nostalgic and disturbing to look back at this first chapter. Disturbing, because of the bad art. Still, I’m happy to see for myself that I have gotten better.



Page 37



First about the name of the chapter. It’s quite obvious I hope. I mention it twice in the chapter that the main character is a traitor. First on page 10 and second time on page 37.

The name of the comic is mentioned on page 11. ”Taint of Exile” is a kind of special scent on a person to inform or warn people that this person is in exile. Meaning most often that he’s a traitor. This is why the princess calls the sorcerer a traitor without another thought. The other reason for the special scent is for other people to stay away when they notice it. The princess is not ”staying away” because of the situation they meet in.

Taint of Exile will be mentioned in future chapters and I try to bring up more information each time.

The strange language (really just things I drew for fun) the sorcerer is using on the very first pages is just me not wanting to come up with actual words for spells. I guess it’s some special language used by magic users. It is not connected with the deitys of the story.

The way I began the comic was something I wanted to try out. I wanted to get straight to the situation at hand instead of starting the chapter from some moments earlier. I did this also, because knowing how things went down to the moment when the sorcerer is inside his giant egg loading a spell is not that important. Not this early in the story, anyway.

By the way, the princess’ shouting that took place a couple of times is not only a mere joke.

Page 16

On page 14 I’m hinting on the power of the high shaman. On the home site I have added information of his powers (world setting -link at the end fo the entry). Also princess’ disability to use magic (mentioned on page 5) is pointed out on the character page (main cast -link at the end).

The difference between the power of shamans and sorcerers is the resource. A shaman gets his power straight from the spirits. In some ways they are quite powerless with out the favor of their deities. You don’t need to be a q’etyana to be a shaman either.

To be a sorcerer you must be a q’etyana, because humans don’t have magic of their own. Sorcerers' powers are most often inborn. If not it is still possible for them to learn it just like the main character did (page 16).

The read band mentioned on page 26 is a symbol of the head of city security and castle security. This is how the sorcerer knew Hilarion’s high position.

The last thing to be mentioned is that there might appear some inconsistency between the first chapter and the future chapters. This is because TOE is being rewritten with out the intent of redoing the first two chapters. If you see any inconsistency, I’m sorry. Maybe some day the first chapter will be redrawn to make everything consistent, but not anytime soon.

Everything else worth mentioning is spoilerish, which is why I won’t point them out just yet.

Eura's dress

CLOTHES

Did you think I was done yet?!?

I’m not done! Now we’ll get to clothes which are mostly inspired by old Finnish and Viking clothing.

You will be seeing a lot of tunics in this comic - especially on men. The sorcerer is not wearing a normal tunic under his cloak, but it is a tunic nonetheless.

The princess is wearing sock like shoes with a binding keeping them on place. This is something you’ll be seeing as well.

Empress

Now the clothes to really look at are the ones the empress is wearing in this chapter. They are most accurately based on Eura’s dress. Also the dress she’s wearing in her character picture is even better, but based on a slightly different kind of dress (main cast -link at the end).

I might at some point make a completely new entry just to explain what I know of the clothing I base the dresses on.

Princess

In this chapter and future chapter you will see the princess dressing differently from others. The biggest difference is her short skirts which are uncommon or pretty much non existent. She’s very daring to dress like she does and is doing it against her parents’ wishes. Usually the skirts are either ankle- or calf-long.

Saturnin

Saturnin, the high shaman, usually wears clothes out of ordinary, but not in the same way as the princess. He does not dress improperly or otherwise wrong. What make his clothes in this chapter strange is the rope around his waist and abdomen and also the band around his neck. Still, considering that he has a curious hair with black spots and also a quite startling hair dressing, his other curiosities are forgivable. Also being a shaman “gives” you the right to be different. Or actually, you are kinda expected to somehow differ from others. Saturnin is not doing it the usual way by, for example, wearing an animal pelt. He does it his own way.


Sorcerer



The sorcerer’s cape is very unordinary and it has a story of its own.

More of the clothing will be told some other time.
I will get to the dressing of the soldiers, royal guards and city guards later.

LINKS

World Settings

Main Cast

Eura's dress - it's in Finnish, but there you'll see some pictures on the details of the dress :)